Two Hard Drive Boot Option: Xp, Vista

[J0E]

Hello! I'm just another newbie with only a few basic computer builds. I wanted to build a computer following your latest PC list, but wanted to have a choice of booting up with XP or Vista. I've seen a friend's computer that has two separate hard drives (one for XP, and one for Vista), but when he switches from xp to vista, or vice versa, he powers down then goes into the BIOS and switches which hard drive he's going to boot from. I'm not sure if you would actually call this dual-booting because they are completely separate with completely independent programs and software. Could you advise on how to set something like this up? Thank you much for any help you may give.

[Rob]

I haven't configured a dual-boot system myself, so I don't have first-hand experiences to share.

The way your friend is doing it sounds interesting. It keeps the separation very clean. I think with any dual boot configuration you will probably have to install the application twice since eacy operating system has its own registry. In fact, each operating system has its own drivers, so there must be quite a bit of separation between the two. But like I said, I haven't done it myself so I'm just making an educated guess.

One question I wonder about is the data format supported by the operating systems. Ideally, they would support the same hard drive data format. That way your own data is recognized under both boots.
A quick google turned up links like these which might be helpful.

http://freepctech.com/pc/001/dual_boot_guide.shtml

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.2-Manual/install-guide/ch-dualboot.html

[J0E]

For those who want to experience Vista, get familiar with it (since it is the next major OS), and at the same time still maintain the mature OS-XP, well instead of doing an actual dual-boot on a single drive, why not do it on separate hard drives. Both drives would be completely independent from one another and you wouldn't have to worry about any incompatibilities. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

Well, I've just found another forum with others who are also interested in dual-booting XP & Vista on separate drives.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=54659

It seems like the only way is to change the boot order on the two hard drives in the BIOS. But some people are saying that it depends if the motherboard supports this option.


Rob, I'm about to follow your latest build, but the only difference is that I'll be installing two separate hard drives. I assume you're quite familiar with the motherboards that you recommend, so my question is, do you know if these mobo's have these options in the BIOS?

Oh, and just to let you know, I truly appreciate this website! There are many "how to builds" out there, but I've found your website to be the easiest to follow.

Thanks again for help given,
j0

[Rob]

The MSI K9N Platinum does allow you to specify the boot order. I don't have the ASUS computer together yet, but my guess is that it also does this.

[DemonicDerek]

Well my dad's computer has this thing that the bios asks you which operating system to boot from becuase I incorrectly cleared his hard drive so now there is one os that is what we want and the other os is basically the os and nothing more because I partitioned the hard drive wrong when trying to clear all of its memory.